Integrated Care for Drug Users assessment: Digest of Tools Used in the Assessment Process and Core Data Sets
PRISM
Acronym | PRISM |
Name of tool | Psychiatric Research Interview for Substance and Mental Disorders |
Related tools | SCID |
Description | The PRISM is a semi-structured clinician-administered interview (extension of SCID) that measures DSM-III, DSM-III-R and DSM-IV diagnoses (current and past) of alcohol, drug, and psychiatric disorders and continuous measures of severity, organic aetiology treatment and functional impairment. Follow up version being developed. |
Primary use | assessment | Secondary use | research |
Client Groups: |
All | 
| Adolescents |
| Minority Ethnic Groups |
|
Adults | 
| Prisoners |
| Women |
|
Other |
|
Administrative Issues: |
Guidelines/Manual | Semi-structured clinician-administered interview |
Number of items | Questionnaire is reported to be 240 pages long |
Time to complete | 1-3 hours |
Scoring | Scored by computer |
Scoring time | Immediate |
Source/Publisher | Dr. Deborah Hasin
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Box 123 722
West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032 |
Photocopy/copyright | No copyright |
Cost | No cost to use instrument. Full cost for training/manuals is $4000 |
Training requirements | Interviewer should have at least a master's degree in a clinical field and some clinical experience. Training required for administration |
Equipment requirements | Computer |
Primary source
GGDAT Treatment and Care Sub Group: Report on Assessment and Outcome Monitoring for Addiction Treatment Services
Secondary sources
Grant, B.F., and Towle, L.H. Standardized diagnostic interviews for alcohol research. Alcohol Health Res World 14(4):340-348, 1990.
Thevos, A.K.; Johnson, A.L.; Latham, P.K.; et al. Symptoms of anxiety in inpatient alcoholics with and without DSM-III-R anxiety diagnoses. Alcoholism Clin Exp Res 15(l):102-105, 1991.
Thevos, A.K.; Brady, K.T.; Grice, D.; et al. Comparison of psychopathology in cocaine and alcohol dependence. Am J Addict 2(4):279-286, 1993.
Positive Features
Reliability of diagnosis.
Concerns
Too expensive, time consuming and large training requirement along with diagnostic nature of the subject areas rule out this instrument.
Clinical Utility of Instrument
Although primarily designed as a research instrument, the PRISM provides systematic coverage of alcohol and drug-related experiences and symptoms that may be useful in identifying areas of focus for treatment. Additionally, the unusually high reliability of the depression diagnoses in individuals with heavy drinking may provide a better basis for treatment decisions than less consistent methods for assessing major depression and dysthymia.
Research Applicability
The high reliabilities of drug, depressive, and antisocial disorders provide the means for studying the effects of comorbidity on alcoholism treatment outcome and for differentiating subjects in order to study treatment-matching strategies when psychopathology is one of the matching variables. Expanded coverage of eating disorders, including binge eating disorders allows examination of the relationship between binge-type behaviors and alcohol, drugs, and eating. Research needed on the instrument is underway and consists of reliability studies in clinical samples, and validity results.